Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's remarks about whether "the Negro" fared better under slavery represents the latest in a series of incendiary racial comments from a new crop of folk heroes embraced in some conservative circles.

"They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton," Bundy said to reporters, according to The New York Times.

"And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn't get no more freedom. They got less freedom," he was quoted as saying.

Bundy, 67, a rancher whose much-publicized land dispute with the federal government endeared him to conservatives, defended his comments as idle thoughts.

"In my mind I'm wondering, are they better off being slaves, in that sense, or better off being slaves to the United States government, in the sense of the subsidies? I'm wondering. That's what. And the statement was right. I am wondering," he said Thursday on "The Peter Schiff Show."

Bundy stood by those comments in interviews with CNN on Thursday and Friday.

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"Maybe I sinned ... and maybe I don't know what I actually said. ... If I say Negro or black or slave ... if those people cannot take those kind of words and not be (offended), then Martin Luther King hasn't got his job done yet. ... We need to get over this prejudice stuff," Bundy said.

But politicians such as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a potential 2016 presidential GOP contender, Republican Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada and other conservatives scrambled to distance themselves from the controversy.

"His remarks on race are offensive and I wholeheartedly disagree with him," Paul said in a statement.

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Heller "completely disagrees with Mr. Bundy's appalling and racist statements, and condemns them in the most strenuous way," according to his spokesman, Chandler Smith.

The Republican National Committee said Bundy's comments were "completely beyond the pale. Both highly offensive and 100% wrong on race."

But experts on race and politics say the comments, much like those of rocker Ted Nugent, who created a firestorm when he called President Barack Obama a "subhuman mongrel," also speak to complicated and deeply fraught cultural tensions running beneath the surface in some segments of America.

"We are looking at some of the 'last white men standing,' " Mark Anthony Neal, an African-American studies professor at Duke University, said of demographic shifts that show minorities now represent more than half of the nation's population born in 2010 and 2011, according to the most recent census data.

"His comments represent that, and people rally around him because of this idea that white men are under siege. They are calling out the political establishment to stand by them," he said.

Over the next several generations, political experts say minority voters will become more of a power base in the Deep South, the Southwest and in California.

During the 2012 presidential election, Republicans faced huge losses among minorities and women, prompting the GOP to re-examine outreach to those groups.

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Feds and cattle rancher face off02:02

Photos:Photos: Showdown in Nevada

Photos:Photos: Showdown in Nevada

Photos: Showdown in Nevada – Rancher Cliven Bundy, right, leaves the podium with bodyguards after a news conference near his ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada, on Thursday, April 24. Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management have been locked in a dispute for a couple of decades over grazing rights on public lands.

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Photos:Photos: Showdown in Nevada

Photos: Showdown in Nevada – Chris Shelton of Las Vegas interacts with his 1-week-old son as his mother Shelley Shelton holds his rifle during a Bundy family "Patriot Party" near Bunkerville, Nevada, on April 18.

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Photos:Photos: Showdown in Nevada

Photos: Showdown in Nevada – Bundy family members and supporters of rancher Cliven Bundy set up for a "Patriot Party" on April 18. The family organized the party to thank people who supported Cliven Bundy in his dispute with the Bureau of Land Management.

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Photos:Photos: Showdown in Nevada

Showdown in Nevada – Cattle rancher Cliven Bundy talks to his supporters Friday, April 11, in Bunkerville, Nevada. They had been protesting the federal government's roundup of Bundy's cattle, which led to an Old West-style showdown last week. The government says Bundy's livestock has been illegally grazing on U.S. lands for 20 years. Bundy says his family's cattle has grazed on the land since the 1800s.

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Photos:Photos: Showdown in Nevada

Showdown in Nevada – Brand Thornton carries a rifle at a protest site in Bunkerville on April 11. The controversy drew armed militia groups from across the country to Bundy's side. The Bureau of Land Management stopped rounding up Bundy's cattle on Saturday, April 12, and it says it returned about 300 head of cattle to the open range to avoid the potential for violence.

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Showdown in Nevada – People gather at a protest area along State Route 170, near the cattle roundup on April 11.

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Showdown in Nevada – A sign announces the closure of public land during the cattle roundup.

Showdown in Nevada – Thornton, right, looks at a wound on Bundy's son Ammon on April 9. Bundy family members and dozens of supporters angrily confronted a group of rangers holding Tasers and barking dogs on Wednesday. Bundy family members say they were thrown to the ground or jolted with a Taser. Federal officials say a police dog was kicked and officers were assaulted.

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Photos:Photos: Showdown in Nevada

Showdown in Nevada – The U.S. government was rounding up cattle that it says have been grazing illegally on public lands for more than 20 years, according to the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. The Bureau of Land Management said Cliven Bundy owed about $1 million in back fees.

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Photos:Photos: Showdown in Nevada

Showdown in Nevada – Cliven Bundy, left, and his son Dave talk to a reporter in Las Vegas on Monday, April 7. Bundy's dispute with the government began two decades ago, when the Bureau of Land Management changed grazing rules for the 600,000-acre Gold Butte area to protect an endangered desert tortoise, KLAS reported. Bundy refused to abide by the changes and stopped paying his grazing fees to the federal bureau, which he contends is infringing on state rights.

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Photos:Photos: Showdown in Nevada

Showdown in Nevada – People help erect a pole so that they could hang a banner April 7 in support of Bundy. One banner at the protest side stated: "Has the West been won? Or has the fight just begun!"

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Photos:Photos: Showdown in Nevada

Showdown in Nevada – Rancher Derrel Spencer speaks during a rally in support of Bundy on April 7.

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Photos:Photos: Showdown in Nevada

Showdown in Nevada – Chris Miller holds his hand over his heart during a rally in support of Bundy on April 7.

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Showdown in Nevada – Bundy's son Arden works at his father's ranch on Saturday, April 5.

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Showdown in Nevada – Cliven Bundy, right, and Clance Cox stand at the Bundy ranch on April 5.

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Showdown in Nevada – Bundy walks by a free speech area set up by the Bureau of Land Management on Tuesday, April 1.

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Showdown in Nevada – Federal rangers block a road near Bunkerville, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, on April 1.

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But Bundy's comments -- much like those of Nugent and "Duck Dynasty " star Phil Robertson, who shared during an interview with GQ last year pastoral recollections of blacks "singing and happy" as he and his family worked alongside them in Louisiana cotton fields -- speak to a certain politically active fringe element, political experts say.

Among those who support views of limited government, there is often a "higher than average endorsement of views that could be seen as racial resentment," said Andra Gillespie, an associate professor of political science at Emory University.

"What this reflects is that there are groups of people who have not been accepted by politically correct circles and have never learned to frame their comments in a palatable fashion. They take pride in that," Gillespie said. "The articulation of their views is somewhat fringe, but the underlying attitude is not. They are a minority viewpoint, but they are a large minority."

And that's put politicians who have previously embraced men such as Bundy, Nugent and Robertson as cause célèbres in an awkward position.

For instance, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, his state's Republican nominee for governor, took heat from some quarters when Nugent appeared at a campaign event for him this year. Abbott's campaign said it did not endorse Nugent's comments.

Other Republicans viewed as potential presidential candidates, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and the state's governor, Rick Perry, also distanced themselves from Nugent's remarks. Paul said an apology was in order, which Nugent eventually offered for using the term.

Conservative radio host Sean Hannity said on his show that he worries Democrats will now use Bundy's "repugnant" and "despicable" comments to paint everyone on the far right as racists.

The Democratic National Committee pounced on Bundy's remarks.

"If you ever want to be taken seriously for your outreach efforts, you might want to start by not defending racists," DNC spokesman Mo Elleithee said in a statement.